The Assassin’s Creed franchise has always been popular among hardcore gamers, but Assassin’s Creed III has huge buzz behind it. Canadian-made and developed, Assassin’s Creed III might end up being one of the most commercially successfully Canadian-developed video games ever.

Q: So, Assassin’s Creed III seems to be getting way more attention than previous Assassin’s Creed titles, and not only from gaming publications. The mainstream media seems to have honed in on it as well. Why do you think this has happened?

François Pelland: Well, there are a few things. Assassin’s Creed has always been known for its content and the way it offers up a playground for people to explore, whether it’s the renaissance era in Italy, or what we’re doing with Assassin’s Creed III. But now that its setting is closer to modern times, it becomes more current. The American Revolution isn’t that far off and, for some people, they might have a great, great grandfather that participated in it.

It’s not something that happened 600 years ago any more. I think this is part of it, but also, people want to have the fantasy of being an Assassin and I also think the improvements we’ve made to the game have helped people become more interested in the franchise.

Q: Previous Assassin’s Creed titles had a lot of climbing in them, but the mechanic mainly involved bounding over square geometric shapes like buildings. With the forest that’s in Assassin’s Creed III, did this cause difficulties during the development process? Trees tend to have unpredictable proportions and I imagine that this probably made things a little harder for your team?

François Pelland: Absolutely, from the early start this was a problem. From Assassin’s Creed to Assassin’s Creed Revolution we had perfectly square buildings. Now it’s a more natural environment and it’s not just the tree navigation, it’s the topology of the region as well, especially in Boston. We also added trees in between streets in the cities that let the play bridge the gap between two buildings.

You know, when we were kids, the one thing we were climbing was trees – it’s natural for us. We weren’t climbing buildings, this isn’t a natural thing to do. One thing that the team knew right from the early start of developed Assassin’s Creed III is that they wanted to have that challenge. They’ve done the more calculated navigation and free running and now we want to have something that’s a little more natural and more difficult. I think the animations looked really natural and turned out great.

Q: The Assassin’s Creed franchise has always emphasized historical accuracy. I’m curious, how do you balance the influence history has over your games with making them fun?

François Pelland: The one thing that we know from the American Revolution is that it was a lot more documented. When you’re thinking of Benjamin Franklin, we have data from where he was, pretty much every day during that period. So, we’re a lot more factual this time than we were before. We also have to respect this because people can look up the facts online to find out if something happened or not.

We’ve been pretty accurate with our historical facts this time and have actually had a historian work with us since day one of the development process. Even our cities, especially Boston, are a pretty good representation of what Boston looked like back then.

Q: As someone who has an interest in history, Assassin’s Creed III’s plot line is one of the main reasons I’m more interested in ACIII than past titles in the series. Could you expand on the game’s story line a little bit?

François Pelland: ACIII is almost like a new IP inside our larger franchise. It follows a new character and a new Assassin. With Assassin’s Creed Revelations, we ended the Ezio story – now it’s all about Connor and his new life. You follow his life from his very early age to pretty much the end. The story also takes place in a completely new environment and the American Revolution acts as the back story of the game.

You’ll be introduced to famous historical figures like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and a bunch of others. You’ll also be participating in key events that helped shape the American revolution. But again, this is just the back story, the story still focuses on the battle between the assassins and the templars. It’s the conclusion of a big story.

Q: But why the American revolution? What attracted your development team to explore that interesting era in North American history?

François Pelland: It’s a jump in time, but the one thing we always like to do with our games is to make sure they take place during a meaningful period. There haven’t been a lot of games or even books and movies that have been set in this era.

So, we felt like it was sort of unexplored as a period… We felt because there was no clear line between right and wrong during this time period, it would work perfectly as the setting of an assassin’s game.

Q: Hunting in Assassin’s Creed III seems really awesome and surprisingly very deep. Could you expand on the game’s hunting system a little bit? It’s definitely a feature I’m excited to explore.

François Pelland: The one thing that we did is have this frontier area that connects our two big cities, Boston and New York. It’s a big map of forests. In this environment, what we decided to do is add animals. When you get to the forest for the first time, you actually won’t see a lot of animals. They’re rare and they’re hiding.

We wanted animals to be rare and for the game to not have 50 caribou or something like that. It’s part of the game’s economic system. It’s also part of certain side missions in the game and is part of the fantasy of being a Mohawk. When you think of Ezio, he was very comfortable in the city. When you think of Connor, he’s very comfortable in the forest. That kind of environment is very natural for him.

Q: What direction do you see the Assassin’s Creed franchise heading in after the release of Assassin’s Creed III? I know you just finished off this game, but you must have some idea of the creative direction you’d like to take the series in.

François Pelland: That’s always a tricky question. You know, Assassin’s Creed is a great hub for creators. You can say, “this is a cool period, it’s interesting to explore and go to.”

I said it before and sort of had the media jump on it, but the franchise isn’t the type of series that always has to move forward in time. When you’re replaying your ancestor’s memories in the animus, they don’t necessarily have to keep moving forward, they could move backwards as well.

This is the beauty of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

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Assassin’s Creed III is set to be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 30th. This interview was edited for style and length.